MEDIA

Press,
Audio, Video/DVD, Interviews, Texts

“… Had
the concert hall’s roof caved in, there was such gravitas in Mintz’
brilliant
delivery, the magnificence of his singing violin would have
continued.." Limelight Magazine, Australia

“Mintz’s
musical thinking is instinctive. His tone, aged for 50 years on
the concert stage, is rich and gritty. He bows with a firm hand,
strokes bold
as charcoal…This is a heart-on-sleeve performance, fierce and
emotional, not
especially gentle, more energetic, masculine, athletic.” OpusOneReview,
Toronto

“Those
fortunate persons who attended the
concert had the singular occasion to listen one of the greatest
violinists of
these days.” La Nacion, Buenos Aires

“ … Mintz
marked his 50th anniversary on stage with
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. It was a vigorous, sharp-edged
performance that
highlighted the virtuosic side of this concert hall warhorse” Toronto Star, Toronto

"The sound Shlomo Mintz channeled in
Beethoven's
Violin Concerto, was beautiful, precise and polished and couldn’t be
faulted
from the deepest to the highest of notes. The soloing was noble, never
gratuitously showy and always alert to the orchestra. Had the
concert
hall’s roof caved in, there was such gravitas in Mintz’ brilliant
delivery, the
magnificence of his singing violin would have continued.."Limelight
Magazine (Australia)

"…
It was a wonderful harmonious dance, a
virtuous dialogue between the violin and the orchestra. He offered the
audience
a quiet and immensely inspiring interpretation; a unique and
unrepeatable
moment of exhilarating beauty.” Teneriffa

Roberto PROSSEDA

Gounod

Piano
Works

" ... Prosseda takes Gounod's
piano work out of it's shadowy existence and
reveals a completely new view upon the French composer, free from any
Kitsch."concerti

" Prosseda doesn't face these little
pieces with nonchalance, as if
they were products of lower quality put on the trash table. He takes
them as
serious as if they were treasures from the jewelry department.Be it dexterity,
assignment of voices or tempi: Prosseda considers these works[…] documents of a great composer […] Nothing
is painted over, alienated, backcombed or
blowed up. Roberto Prosseda does not let himself taken by the poetry of
Gounod's piano work, but takes them by their depth - at times elegiacly
singing, at times softly sparkling - and never exaggerating.
With such style competence, he definitely does justice to Gounod."Ch. Vratz

Mozart

Piano
Sonatas 7 - 12

"
... He plays the sonatas with such dedication and verve, as if he wants
to contradict all those, who're maintaining that Mozart's sonatas are
only a pale shadow of his concertos.When
Mozart is requesting "con spirito", Prosseda supplies! And he does as
well, in case "maestoso" is requested as in the A Minor sonata -
which for Prosseda means that he's allowed to detect minuscule
melancholic islands.This
recording is increasingly turning out to be the modern piano equivalent
to Bezuidenhout's fortepiano recordings."concerti online

" Mozart’s piano sonatas in
perfection. Roberto Prosseda enthuses
with his 2nd album[…]And here it is
again. This
very particular sound, this very special play. Roberto Prosseda has
this
natural musical intuition for Mozart, this freshness, this spontaneity.[…]

Already Prossseda’s
first
album had enthused me. And this one does it once again. […]

IsRoberto
Prosseda allowed to do so? I think, yes, he is! These are the
liberties who make something new, fresh out of
well-known familarities. Which open our ears and catches our attention.
Mozart
himself has been a great improvisator, who never slavishly sticked at
his own
score. And that is exactly what makes his music even more lively. […] I’m already looking forward
to the 3rd album. "HR2

“
… this was a
completely new experience for me: possibly a new Mozart reference.[…]specially
enthusing the virtuoso decorations and
variations. One could easily imagine,
that Mozart could have done decorations the same way […][Concerning
the]
Valotti tuning, there might be people, suffering from an
absolute pitch, who consider the sound impure, but what counts, is the
fact
that, this way, tensions are created, savored and eased, which makes
the play
vital and colorful as seldom heard before. […]
This is the way one plays
Mozart in 2018. "MDR

“ … Roberto
Prosseda is a
subtle and sophisticated mind at the keys.
His articulation is incredibly carefully and lovingly, and on top of
it, he
offers a great many of sound colors in piano and pianissimo passages.
Particularly
special is his art of ornamentation. Again and again, he takes the
liberty to
add little and elegant excursions, which are not written in the score.
Prosseda
does that the way Mozart certainly did it at his time.
He improvises and ornaments stylistically correct and is not slavishly
following the text - Mozart would certainly have liked it.
“ Radio Bremen

" [...] He especially
makes clear, that Mendelssohn is not a Kitsch-composer!
His play is so clear, that even on modern pianos, the sound
possibilities of the 19th century remain still apparent. Prosseda
discovers middle voices and second lines, integrates them intelligently
and takes transitions with great care.
At the same time, he renounces to giant rubati and doses the use of
pedal.
His sparkling touch (which also distinguishes his recent Mozart
recordings) is always convincing. [...] In summa,
Prosseda achieves a major success: he combines a sens for melodic arcs
with intelligent increasements (as for example in the 1st Fugue from
op.35) and he shows, how subltly Mendelssohn joins contrasts.

[...] a music who,
almost as Chopin, tells stories in an utmost small space. … “ FONO
FORUM, Juli/17

"[...]Prosseda
has recorded these pieces with supreme pianistic mastery, but also,
however, with a sens for the respective microcosm, the atmospherique
picture into which he engages himself for every piece – how small it
may be.
His range reaches from brilliant virtuosity through pensive moments
with long lasting tones to playful roguishness or also melancholic
moments.
Playing Mendelssohn is difficult [...] And
this is exactly what makes this
complete recording so worth listening. An immense empathy, an
outstanding
refinement of play and the deep understanding of the music arising from
the
knowledge about Mendelssohn as a human being. An unconditional
recommendation for this 10 Cds-Box, not only because of the actual
uniqueness
with reference qualities.

“ … a
performance which sets, more
uncomprimisingly than all his spiritual predecessors, on sensible
articulation
and phrasing, colourfulness, agility and flexibility.

However, the
instrument he chose was not a historical fortepiano, but a Fazioli
grand piano
from 2015, delicately tuned in one of the historical unequal
temperaments,
which allowed him to realize amazingly well Mozart’s piano writing in a
lean
way, with an extreme richness of nuances and a soft piano down to a
breathed-like pianissimo.

Thus, he realized
an interpretation […] which is free from professoral or historicizing
rigidity,
but still less from the smart ‘modern’ one-track-ideology with which
Mozart can
still often be heard.

On the contrary, I
have the impression that, here, it has been succeeded to convey the
whole
musical wealth of these Sonatas more lively and more powerfully than
ever.

Prosseda always
remains close to the text, but presents it by a colour palette applied
in an
excitingly imaginative way and constantly opening new perspectives: a
recording which has to become a new reference. Ingo Harden, Fono Forum

" ... the
choice of the instrument
plaid a major role. Even though he plays a modern grand piano, it’s
mechanic
and soundboard allow him to explore effects reminding a pianoforte. And
moreover, he chose the tempered Valotti tuning still common in the 19th
century.

The
combination of these 3
elements for the recording of the first 6 piano sonatas leads to an
extremely
remarkable and impressive sound experience.

Thus, we’re really
looking forward
to how the pianist will approach the next works by the Salzburg master.
" DR-Kultur

"
... the sound world is fascinating: a multi-textured tapistry woven by
an empowered soloist... " Int.
Piano"... Gounod's music for
pedal piano: great stuff! [...]
This disc really does represent a revelation ..." Classics Today / Major Discoveries"...
among the very jolliest of piano and orchestra recordings that had coem
my way for some time [...] a real winner[...] an unexpected delight." GramophonePlaying
heart, soul and feet: Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda revives a lost
art, recreating the haunting melodies of a pedal piano [...] there
is the almost architectural quality of the sound, created by the
interplay of the two vertically stacked soundboards. .. " Wall
Street Journal"
... charming and witty, sometimes massive and sometimes delicate. [...]
Prosseda plays all of the solo parts with Gallic elegance ... "

Int.
record review

BettyOLIVERO

(...) There
were many more
beautiful moments in Merkavot by the Israeli composer Betty Olivero. In
its first movement, quiet communications among solo strings survived
sudden
single events: percussion impulses or huge chords that had a somewhat
Messian-
like shine and seductiveness, but within a far more fluid musical
world. The
second, with warbling flute and clarinet, the constant, again swayed
and bulged
unpredictably. Here was one composer to ask back (...)"The
New York
Times

"(...)
The major discovery was
Betty Olivero`s Batnun,
a single-movement Concerto for double bass and
orchestra that stands as one of the few fully convincing solo pieces
for double
bass I've encountered (...)"The
New York
Times

"Betty
Olivero`s song-cycle, Cantes
Amargos, is one of the most beautiful works
of its kind heard in recent
memory (...)"Daily
News

"(...) The combination of the old German
film Der Golem from 1920 with the music written by the Israeli composer
Betty Olivero, has created a whole which is bigger than its components.
The sounds not only enrich the film, they are magnificent music which
combines the Klezmer elements with the Baroque, all plane without any
disguise, to create a convincing sound." Ha'retz

"(...)
In Olivero's
hands, the Hosha'ana
sounds commanding, insisting. It cries for God in a
protest manner, with the pain of dissonant chords, with Piccolo and
Bells and
screaming strings. A heart penetrating scream, an unforgettable music.
(...)Presenze
by Olivero was thrilling with its wonderful bravery and its orchestral
and
melodic innovation."Ha'retz"(...)
The ensemble presented the world premiere of a
profoundly beautiful work by the Israeli composer Betty Olivero Achot
Ketana
("In Memoriam"). A mezzo-soprano intones a Hebrew prayer from 13th
century Spain to music based on the opening harmonies and gestures of
Bach's
"Chaconne" for solo violin. The piece is full of echoes: three solo
violinists and a clarinetist stand behind the string ensemble,
introducing
ideas and providing commentary, all directed by Olivero's sense of
drama and
precision of ear."Globe
Staff